It was a tense and frightening moment for Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst as he attempted to give a live update on the situation from the frontlines in Ukraine while running breathlessly away from incoming artillery.
“Guys, right now we are moving back from the front,” Yingst stated while jogging backward up a desolate dirt path. “The Ukrainian unit that we were with started to take incoming artillery rounds from Russian-backed separatists here in the eastern part of the country. So you can see, some of the other journalists and soldiers who were with us on the front lines here — and you can hear that explosion there –”
Explosions can be heard in the distance, prompting Ying to urge his companions to “move a little quicker! We’re good. We just got to keep moving here. Stay with us. Keep moving.”
“If you guys can still hear us, off to the right there, there is a lot of incoming artillery,” Yingst told the studio.
According to Yingst, while the Ukrainians have been following the Minsk Protocol, which was an agreement written in 2014 to end the war in the disputed Donbas region of Ukraine, Russian-backed forces are not holding up their end of the deal.
“The fire that we have coming in right now is being fired from just a few kilometers away,” Yingst explained. “Russian-backed separatists clearly identified there were a lot of people at that position and started to hammer it pretty heavily with artillery. You heard just a couple of seconds ago, there were explosions in the distance. Those were incoming rounds. That’s what the Ukrainian military has been dealing with the past 48 hours. They say they have been following the Minsk Protocol, and it’s the Russian-backed forces — you hear in the distance there, more explosions — that are violating this agreement.”
Yingst reminded viewers that this is taking place while Ukraine President Zelenskyy is in Germany seeking support in the event that Russia invades.
“Remember, right now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Munich at a security conference, and he is going to be meeting with world leaders asking for support ahead of a possible Russian invasion,” Yingst reported. “President Biden, yesterday at the White House, and Defense Secretary Austin, today in Europe, have said President Putin made up his mind. He plans to invade this country, where we’re at right now.”
While Yingst says the Ukrainians are not currently returning fire, he does say other Ukrainian forces are doing so, though they are sticking to the agreement.
“We’ve been talking with a number of Ukrainian troops as we have been covering this story, and they are, they say, they are returning fire within the confines of the agreement, meaning there are certain weapons that they are not allowed to use,” Yingst reported.
Just before the shelling began, Yingst said the Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy was visiting the troops.
“I want to give you a little bit more information, guys, about this scene,” said Yingst. “We were inside of a bunker when the artillery started coming in, talking with Ukrainian forces. The Interior Minister was the one here visiting troops. We were with his delegation. But as you can hear in the distance, those Russian separatists identified there were people at this location and they started to hit it quite heavily.”
Again, more mortars could be heard exploding, sending Yingst again on the run.
“If you can hear those artilleries coming in, we are moving right now with Ukrainian forces,” Yingst panted. “Let’s keep moving! Move!”
From there, the report became even more chaotic, with Yingst stating nervously, “those rounds are super close,” before telling the Fox studio, “Guys, we’ll have to get back to you a little bit later. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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